10 Doctor Who Actors Who Almost Played Different Characters

7. Peter Kay

Oh, Peter. Where did it all go so wrong, eh? He's a comedian, for God's sake, so surely if anyone was going to excel in the role of a green monster with a mohawk (and that's not to mention the sagging nappy), it should've been him? Suffice to say, his guest stint as the Abzorbaloff in Series 2's ill-fated Love & Monsters is often cited as one of the worst monsters in Doctor Who history. He even regrets doing it, which is saying something. It's not all his fault, though, because the episode itself is still the subject of intense debate amongst the more vocal and persistent corners of the show's fandom. It was NuWho's first 'Doctor-lite' offering (David Tennant and Billie Piper were 'double-banking' it with another episode) which meant that it hardly features the titular Time Lord at all. Instead, viewers were introduced to Marc Warren as Elton Pope, because if you can't have the Doctor, the next logical step is to follow the life of an ordinary man who's obsessed with him. Naturally. And that ordinary man was originally going to be Peter Kay. Peter was initially offered the role of the show's one off protagonist but asked if he could play the episode's baddie after raising concerns that Elton - who he described as the "UFO spotter type" - was too similiar to a character he'd been playing in Coronation Street. So, as it turns out, Love & Monsters could've been very different after all, but it probably doesn't even bear thinking about who they would've cast as the Abzorbaloff in Peter's place. The genuine article indeed.